Fanfiction has been called the lowest form of literature numerous
times by writers and readers worldwide—a rather unfair
assessment of it, really. Especially when everyone knows that the
lowest form of literature is Contemporary Poetry, as can be seen in
the example below:

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MailboxBy Chaz Eurotrashsky*

I walkTo the mailboxLook down atCrimsonFlag
descendedAnd I amSad

*Not a real name, or a real poet, for that matter.

--

Fanfiction is when a person writes a story using another person’s
characters and often setting. For example, if I were to write a story
about the hobbits from Lord of the Rings, wherein Frodo finds
a new love or Sauron comes back to life, that would be fanfiction.

A natural question to ask is, “Is this legal? It sounds like
plagiarism.”

The official answer is that it’s covered by the “Fair
Use” laws of copyrights. Meaning, it’s okay to write this
story so long as 1. it is not written for profit, 2. you give credit
to the original author, and 3. you do not libel the original author
in the work. Fulfill those three requirements, and you can write
anything you want!

With all that room for creativity, one might expect the world of
fanfiction to be a great opportunity for fans of a certain literary,
television, or other work to use their imaginations and develop
storylines far beyond those of the original version. Unfortunately,
this is not the case, since most writers incapable of writing
their own characters and setting are, not so shockingly, also
incapable of plot creativity. I would estimate more than 70% of all
fanfiction stories fall into one of the following three plot
categories:

THE MATCH-UP: This is a romance story, wherein the author
pairs up two of the characters in the original work. No real plot,
but lots of description of facial expressions, curves on the body...
When this story is purely a sex fic, it’s called a “lemon,”
and when it’s a homosexual relationship, it’s called
“slash.” To complicate matters slightly, if the original
work was an anime, and the relationship is homosexual, then it’s
called “yaoi” or “yuri” depending on whether
the story is about males or females respectively. Different names,
same basic idea.

MARY SUE (or, MARTY STU): This is another romance fic, but
instead of two characters from the original work, this time, the
author inserts himself/herself into the story, and one of the
characters falls in love with them. Frequently the “fanfiction
author character” (“Mary Sue” or “Marty
Stu”) will save the other character’s life, maybe save
the world... You get the idea. It’s an ego-boost type of
story.

CROSSOVER: This includes characters from one work being
warped into the world of another work, as well as characters from
one work being warped into the real world, as well as the fanfiction
author character being warped into the world of fiction. Same
difference, and really, the same plot throughout.

I actually got my start at writing by doing #3 on the above list.
Mostly comedies, mostly vulgar... the types of work only high school
freshmen and sophomores could appreciate fully. I look back on them
now and say, “What the heck was I thinking?” But back
then, I was laughing as I printed them out, saying, “This is
gold!”

What happened to me? Well, I wrote (more or less by accident) one
fanfiction story that did not fit into any of the above categories.
This story, Mineswept, set the tone for the rest of my
fanfiction days and even prompted the idea of an original science
fiction novel.

Let’s look at what makes Mineswept different from the
vast majority of fanfiction stories:

It has some original, well-developed characters who aren’t
just versions of me running around and falling in love with each
other.

It involves an intricate comedy that does not depend on
crossover.

These two things actually count for a lot in fanfiction.
When I set out to write my stories based on Darkwing Duck, I
included a set of characters grown older than they had been in the
series, along with an original character named Evan (who is not,
repeat, not me) who mirrors some of the heroine’s actions in
the story.

The simple fact of fanfiction is, so long as you avoid the cliché,
you have a very good chance at writing an excellent work. Of course,
every story is only as good as the person who writes it... And now
that I’m moving on to original fiction, I’d like to think
of the fanfiction genre as more of a stepping stone than a final
destination on the road of writing.

But even as I leave that genre, I have a message for writers and
readers alike. (And yet again, it will come in the form of a numbered
list.)

To all creators of original series: Imitation really is the
highest form of flattery; don’t get angry at fans for writing
fanfiction! Believe it or not, there are a few authors who get
really mad about this genre because they think it does more harm
than good. I’d also like to point out that most of these
fanfiction-hating writers are real douchebags in person—yes,
I’ve met a few of them. You mention the “f” word
in front of them, and they give you a lecture full of sound, fury,
and bullshit, by the end of which, they try to convince you that you
are horrible scum and deserve to die. Let me be clear to these
people: so long as no copyright infringements are made, and so long
as the author adheres to the rules of the Fair Use laws, nobody
has a right to tell anyone else what they can and cannot write.
Period.

To all fanfiction writers: try NOT to do any of the above
cliché examples, and see how far you get. If those three are
the best you can do, you probably shouldn’t be writing,
anyway, unless you’re really young and inexperienced, in which
case, these clichés are only good for learning examples of
what not to write in the future.

Don’t complain about the appropriateness of yaoi / yuri
/ slash stuff. All NC-17 fiction should contain a disclaimer saying
“not for children,” but the bottom line is, if you don’t
like it, then just don’t read it. Don’t write hate mail
to the author. Destructive criticism never did anyone any good.

After I finish the Darkwing Duck fanfiction trilogy, I’m
going to call it quits on any fanfiction where I do not have the
original creator’s consent.

Speaking of which, Scott Ramsoomair is awesome. I asked him via
email if he’d mind me writing fanfiction for his comic, VG
Cats, and he’s not only given me permission, but he’s
also given my site a link from his page.

By contrast, I wrote Dan Miller of the comic Kid Radd in
regards to fanfiction, and he said that although I could write it, he
would not post any link to it on his page, and he would not read a
single word of it, not because he hates fanfiction (he’s really
an awesome guy, as far as I can tell, and his comic is very awesome
indeed), but because original creators sometimes try to distance
themselves from the fan base so they do not get sued for “copying”
a fanfiction author should something occur in the ongoing original
series that is similar to a previous fanfiction.

This is actually a legitimate argument against fanfiction; a few
years ago, Babylon 5 had this problem when a fanfiction author
wrote (coincidentally) what was basically the plot of the next big
Babylon 5 feature. The feature had to be delayed a year while
legal issues were taken care of so that nobody would sue anyone for
copying the fanfiction work.

Here’s my stance on it: Suppose Scott goes and uses my VGC
fanfiction novels to write his next few comics. Guess what: I didn’t
own the rights to Scott’s characters when I wrote the
fanfiction, and I don’t own them now. He can do whatever he
wants, even blatantly copy my plots, and because my work was
fanfiction, I still can’t make a dime off it. Nor would
I want to, honestly. When I finish my original novel, then
we’ll talk about what rights I own.

The reason you write fanfiction is for the fun of it, not for fame
or fortune (although Scott’s link has gotten me a lot of hits
on this site, I must admit). Your audience consists of fellow fans of
the work you write about, and your reward is a bit of constructive
criticism at best, a load of hate mail at worst.

And lastly, a brief message to those few out there who are
hardcore fanfiction writers enjoying a regular exercise of Marty-Stu
yaoi crossovers: please don’t hate me for calling your work
“cliché” in this rant; remember, there are a lot
of contemporary poets out there who could stand to learn a thing or
two from your ingenuity.